Advice – exercise, stretching, workstation set up and more

Katy Bowman, the biomechanist whose book Move your DNA I recommend highly and talk about in a short book review in this newsletter and on my blog, has written widely about natural movement and body alignment for health and wellbeing.

Inspired by fantastic blog posts from her website ‘Nutritious Movement’, here is advice as to how to stand without the traditional cues and psychological preferences like ‘take your shoulders back like a soldier’, ‘push your chest out’, ‘I like to hold my tummy in’ and ‘stand as if you’ve got a book balanced on your head’! Standing (and walking) in an aligned way can really prevent lower extremity (foot, ankle, knee), hip, back and upper body pain:

As we get older we can become frustrated with the fact that we experience more aches and pains, muscle problems, strains and injuries. This is due to our body losing elasticity and flexibility and its ability to recover quickly from exercise. In the case that these pains seem to come from nowhere for no apparent reason, it may be linked to what I call the end of the ‘reservoir of compensation’ whereby the emotional and physical traumas of life have led to body being unable to cope or compensate. It can feel as if the ‘straw has broken the camels back’ (although this may be in other areas of the body than the back)!

This 4 minute clip gives you a brief introduction to the excellent audio book ‘Explain Pain’ by its authors, David Butler & Lorimer Moseley. It is definitely worth considering buying this book either in hardcopy or in audio format – particularly if you suffer from any chronic (longer lasting) painful conditions:

The festive season is almost upon us – and, once all done and dusted, some of us may be looking forward to our skiing holidays. For those that are going skiing, it is important that you are aware that, unless you have been keeping up with regular exercise and have not been too inactive or sedentary, you may be setting yourself up for injury.

Climbing has become a very popular sport in recent years and with the increase in participation has come an increase in injuries – particularly to the wrist and hands. This article gives you basic tips on how to avoid injury, lists some of the more common climbing injuries and gives you tips on how to treat the injured areas.

Many people start a fitness campaign with gusto at the start of the new year. This is great, however injuries often occur when there is a sudden rather than paced increase in duration, intensity or frequency of their activities. Many soft-tissue injuries can b

There is a common misconception that we should all be sleeping on hard mattresses as soft mattresses are not good for our backs, but this is not necessarily the case. If this is true then what should we be looking for in a mattress? Here are some tips on finding the mattress that’s right for you (and your partner):